The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1887-05-21
GREAT SHOPS.
Magnificent Plant the Maine Central
will have at WatervIIle.
Works that cannot be Beaten In all
New England.
The Best Machinery and the Best
Machlnists to be Employed.

The Best Machinery and the Best
Machlnists to be Employed.
On quadrangle which includes nine acres
of ground the new Maine Central shops are
erected at Waterville. The work began a
year ago. and has gone forward steadily ev-
er since. The buildings are up and the ma
chinery is now goingin The immense size
and great cost Of the plant which the Maine
Central is here establishing can only be real
lied by going over the buildings and examin-
ing the plan ON which they are built. No
shops in New England, and probably not
many in the United States, equal them in
extent. The machinery, when it is all
set up, will be absolutely the best that
can be obtained. In respect to equip
ment the shops In Waterville will
be second to none in the country. Every
possible appliance for saving labor has been
| utilized. Machines that cost two thousand,
| three thousand, four thousand and five thous-
aRd dollars sacR rmsaef5herhs a cofss fa s
Of 1aaaaa- IL. .ho. employed will be less than in
shops where the problem Of saving labor has
| not been carefully studied. Two or three
hundred men win probably be employed at
| first. But the great extent Of the shops, and
the plan on which they are built which
| would allow their size TO be doubled at any
time, may indicate that the works are intend
struction and repairs for the Maine Central
railroad Some say that the Boston q Maine
s back Of the Maine Central, and that be-
| lore many years
THOUSAND MEN
| will be at work in the Wateryille shops turn
ing out cars and locomotives for the whole
magnificent system of New England rail-
roads with which the Boston & Maine man
| agement is expected to meet the Maine Cen
trail at Portland. There are many reasons
why Waterville would be better place for
| the great New England machine shops than
South Boston, or Salem, or Portland. Wa
Wateryllle Is even. yet country village. All
| around the new shops, which are some dis
tance up the river from the village, are green
| fields. Here the employees of the shops can
| buy land and own homes Of their own. The
cost OF living will be cheap compared with
the cost in Boston or Portland. This will
affect the rate of wages On two dollars and
/ half day a mechanic can do as well in |
| Wateryille as he could on three dollars or
three dollars and half day in Boston or
Portland. Another reason why Waterville |
will be Q much better place for extensive |
works is the character of the men who will |
be attracted. The mechanic at Waterville
may easily own his home. This will give
him position and influence as citizen. From
| purely business point OF view he will be a
much more valuable man to his employer.
than would be mechanic at Boston or Sa-
lem, living in a rented house, with less
to keep him established and steady. With
| the one class of men strikes are almost un-
/ known; with the other they are frequent and
| disastrous both to employees and employer.
| Inc new shops have been constructed on
long. On the west side of this quadrangle,
| extending along seven hundred or more feet
are car and engine shops, where both the
wood and iron work are to be done. On the
| eastern side Of the quadrangle there is at |
present only paint shop three hundred feet |
| long.
Up and down the centre of this quadrangle
| runs
THE TRANSFER PIT"
which will be when completed seven hun |
dred and eighty-eight feet long by sixty in |
width There is nothing in Maine so near |
like what the Eads ship railway was intend |
| ed to be as this transfer pit. Along it Is |
track of six rails, and on it runs a long, wide
nat car with great many wheels to run on |
| these six rails. Across the top Of this fiat |
| car are laid a number Of ordinary railroad |
| tracks, On to these tracks cars or engines
| may be run. Then, propelled by an engine |
OF its own, the great fiat car, with its load of
| ordinary cars or engines, will move up the |
| quadrangle over its line Of six-rail track. |
| The transfer pit Is sunk SO that the surface
| OF the ground on either side is even with the |
| top OF the great fiat car. Running up to the |
| edge of the transfer pit are tracks leading to |
the machine shop, the Woodworking shop, |
| the car shop, or on the other side of the |
| quadrangle, to the paint shop. Over these |
| tracks the cars and engines intended for re- |
| pair will be distributed to the proper shops, |
| and by it the new cars and engines will be |
taken out or transferred from one shop to |
| another as the work progresses.
The machinery of the entire shops will be |
| driven by Harris Corliss engine. This en- |
| gine is now working and attracts a great |
deal of attention. The immense size Of 1t |
may be imagined from the size OF
THE BIG DRIVING WHEEL,
| which is fourteen feet in diameter. A long, |
wide belt, the leather Of which must once |
have covered the backs of whole herd of |
cattle, runs over this wheel to pulley on
the main shaft about midway of its length. |
Eight such rods of iron as this main shaft |
would reach within a few feet of a mile. |
The main shaft extends off to the right and |
lett OF the engine room through the shops |
that extend along the west side of the quad |
rangle. From the shaft each shop Is to take !
| the power to drive its machines.
The machines, as has already been said. |
nave been made according to the latest de-
signs. Some of them are very large, for |
planning huge plankS of iron, for turning out
the iron tires for locomotive wheels, boring |
the holes for crank pins, etc. From their |
| size it might be inferred that they are in
tended only for the toughest work but in
| reality all OF these large machines are so
carefully made and exactly adjusted as to cut
TO within an almost inappreciable fraction Of
| an inch. An immense Ipaner which attracts
| considerable attention from visitors to the
machine shop, Is one of the most expensive
| OF these machines. The foundation for il
was laid with almost as much care as the
foundation Of an expensive monument.
| There can be no trembling or shaking when
rs put In motion, for 1t must take off
sHAvINGs OF IRON AND STEEL
almost as fine as would be taken off on jew
/ eller'S lathe. There is another huge ma
| chine which the superintendent says can do
"almost everything but talk" 1t bores out
| the great steel tiresgof locomotive wheels al
/ most as readily as a small boy will clean out
| the rind OF a watermelon.
The thing most talked about by the people
in the country around Is the huge whistle. 1t
| can be heard for miles, farther than any
| other whistle that ever came into that re-
| gi0n. When 1t blows the vibrations Of the
air are so marked that a person standing
| near it feels an indescribable sensation all
| over his body, similar to the sensation expe-
| rienced when heavy cannon is fired near
/ one. Next to the whistle, the big chimney
Is admired. Although hundred feet high
TINS chimney lss9 handsomely proportioned
as TO appear much shorter.
The shops are made Of brick and iron, aud
| except the wood shop, in the centre Of the
long row on the west side Of the quadrangle
have but one story. They are high and are
lighted from windows in the walls and in the
| turret roof.
AT present there are about q hundred men
at work, and 1t will take two or three months
more to complete the shops. The engineer
ing department of the Maine Central, which
oversees the work that it may be done ac-
cordlng to the plans, is represented at Wa
teryille by Mr.. G. +. Black. Mr.. Blacks
work shows what sort Of an education our
Maine State College is capable Of giving.
|
civil engineering course; was taken at once
into the employ of the chief engineer of the
Maine Central, and has been left with the
work ON the new shops from the beginning.
As the magnitude of the work has been
appreciated by the people of Waterville, the
town has experienced something very
MUCH LIKE BOOM.
The employment of five hundred or a
thousand mechanics would make a very
| rraat incraasa Of WaterYilla,s nonnlatinr,